Root Cause Analysis (RCA): Are Failures Caused by Inadequate Maintenance?

Abstract

While wrong quality assurance and control during maintenance activity may affect failures of physical assets, it is not always true to associate the “lack” of maintenance or the perception of it to failure of physical assets or degradation of system reliability. This paper intends to methodically assess the contribution of lack of maintenance towards physical asset failures, degradation of system reliability, and whether it matters or not. By achieving the conclusion, operation and maintenance engineers and facility heads should be better positioned to not immediately link failures to lack of maintenance and be cautious during root cause analysis sessions. This will help build a healthier culture, i.e., generative culture. As a result, RCAs will be performed more objectively and aimed to improve, rather than blame. It is found from the assessment that only about a (theoretical) maximum of 30% of failures may be caused by lack of maintenance, requiring the entire organisation to be more careful during RCAs to not jump to a conclusion.

Keywords

• root cause analysis
• inadequate maintenance
• failure
• reliability
• rca